Storm drains have a way of surprising you... and the Wetnut 29 drain is no exception.

From studying topographical maps, I knew that there'd be a storm drain in this particular location. However, I only expected to find a small pipe - not a 6' square pipe next to a 7' RCP (round concrete pipe). And just inside the entrance to the square tunnel, a 6' RCP led off to the side. This was getting interesting...

The drain begins at the edge of the woods near Rt. 29, north of Charlottesville. The left (square) tunnel has a 6' RCP coming in from the side, just inside the entrance. The square pipe continues straight, then after a short distance makes a sharp (about 45-degree) right turn. A surface grate lets in plenty of light here. (Just before the turn, there's a 3' RCP on the left, that connects to a series of gutter boxes along the side of Rt. 29) The main drain goes straight for a ways, then makes a slight left turn. After this, you can see the exit. At first the exit looks kinda small... but then you realize that the tunnel doesn't get smaller, the water just gets deeper. A lot deeper. Waist deep. Hence, the "Wetnut". Just before the exit, a set of manhole rungs lead up to another side tunnel... I'm not sure how large this side tunnel is, I need to go back and see if it's worth exploring.

Back to the side tunnel at the beginning of the square drain... What I expected to be just a short side-tunnel ended up being the most interesting feature of the whole drain. The round pipe headed uphill, running parallel to Rt. 29 (hence the "29"). Every 75-100 yards or so, there was a sort of room in the drain, where the floor was flat and light filtered down from grates or manholes above. The first of these had a bit of graffiti, dated 1999. I guess some kids thought the drain was a good place to hang out? These little chambers proved to be good places to stop and rest (walking in a RCP is a pain in the ass!). A few were small and uninteresting, but a few of these chambers were large, and had plenty of dry floor to sit down on. Finally, this side-tunnel more-or-less ended, as it split off into a pair of pipes maybe 4' in diameter... The one on the left is a shrinker - it just keeps getting smaller and smaller as it goes uphill. The one on the right turns into a nasty rusty steel pipe after a short ways, that still needs to be explored.

Back to the entrance of Wetnut 29. The 7' RCP isn't very interesting. I have no idea why they used round pipe for one drain, but square for the other. The 7' RCP runs parallel to the square drain, and becomes square itself after a short distance. It doesn't have any side tunnels or manholes or anything interesting like that. There were some dead animals though (a bullfrog and a sunfish), which gave the dank drain air a more unpleasant smell.

All in all, this drain kicks ass. It's not too long, but the diversity of features make it very interesting to explore.

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